Few U.S. adults use Twitter–but those who tweet, tweet often

By staff and wire services reports

December 10th, 2010

Seems like just about everyone’s tweeting these days, but a new survey finds that for now, only 8 percent of adults in the U.S. are using Twitter, reports AOL news. That said, nearly one in four of those who do tweet check their feeds “several” times a day. The latest findings of the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that Twitter is most popular among women, with 10 percent of those who are online tweeting versus seven percent of men. Young adults also rated high, with 14 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 29 hip to the ways of Twitter. Unsurprisingly, the percentage of Twitter users drops as the age brackets get higher, with just 7 percent of those aged 30-49 on Twitter, and a mere 4 percent of those 65 and up admitting to tweeting. Disappointingly, though, the Pew survey doesn’t include teenagers–who, as we learned through a variety of surveys last year, aren’t all that into tweeting. (Or at least they weren’t a year ago.) ReadWriteWeb has an interesting essay by a precocious 16-year-old who tells us that today’s teens would rather “extend their real social connections onto the internet” than merely engage in “self-promotion” or “follow interests immediately.” That’s why Facebook “has almost everything a teen could want,” while Twitter “offers no value to teenagers,” writes RWW guest author Michael-Moore Jones (who is on Twitter, by the way). Teens: Agree? Disagree? Statistical breakdowns aside, Pew is basically telling us that 92 percent of online U.S. adults don’t bother with Twitter. Here’s the thing, though: Those who are tweeting are well-nigh addicted…